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Mullen High reveals recruiting violations in football program

Mullen High School parents wait for the start of a 90-minute meeting Wednesday where the recruiting violations were announced. The meeting at times turned tense, with some audience members shouting and interrupting school officials. Karl Gehring, The Denver Post

In a tense meeting Wednesday night, the chief executive of Mullen High School announced the school had notified the Colorado High School Activities Association of recruiting violations committed by the staff of former football coach Dave Logan, who was fired last week.

"This is a Mullen failure, top to bottom," Ryan Clement, the Catholic school's president and CEO, told a packed room on campus. "And we need to fix it. ... We are Mullen. The standard is different."

Mullen stunned the Colorado sports community by firing Logan after a nine-year tenure during which he won four state championships. Not until Wednesday did school officials mention recruiting violations.

Logan said Wednesday night that in his 19 years of coaching football, he has never been sanctioned.

"I would just say that I find the timing of this a bit curious," said Logan, a former star prep wide receiver who played in the NFL for the Cleveland Browns and Denver Broncos before embarking on a successful coaching and broadcasting career. "We'll find out what the allegations are, then I'll stand up and deal with it head-on.

"I've conducted myself for 19 years as a head football coach with integrity and have not deviated from that," he said. "I've never deviated from that."

A source familiar with the report of violations said it stems from an Oct. 21 game against Arapahoe High School in which eighth-graders were on the Mullen sideline during the game.

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The practice is barred because it could give schools an unfair advantage in recruiting students. The students were later asked to sit in the stands, the source said.

Clement said last week that Logan was fired because the school wanted its football coach to be a full-time faculty member who can "be engaged in every facet" of the school.

Clement elaborated on that Wednesday, saying that in their final conversation with Logan last week, he and principal Jim Gmelich expressed concern that the school's compliance with state rules suffered because there wasn't a full-time commitment to the job.

"This is not the first time these conversations were had," Clement said.

He said that after Logan made his firing public, Mullen leadership has worked "to get to the bottom of the most obvious violations" and reported them to the CHSAA on Wednesday.

He said there also was evidence of other violations. He said the school leadership will develop a "comprehensive and independent" process to determine other possible violations and also create a "more rigorous protocol" to ensure the infractions are not repeated.

"This will be a difficult process but it is necessary — in fact, there is little doubt it is past due," he said.

Clement did not go into detail about the violations, and both he and Gmelich declined interview requests after the meeting.

Jeff Braun, a defensive coordinator last season at Mullen, said the accusations "are just false. I just think they are coming up with an excuse to try to get rid of a good staff."

Paul Angelico, Colorado High School Activities Association commissioner, said the association hasn't had time to review the material from Mullen.

Under CHSAA rules, Mullen is required to give notice of any infractions and lay out a corrective action plan, Clement said. If CHSAA accepts the school's efforts at self-enforcement, no additional penalties will be imposed, he said. Mullen has not faced any previous sanctions for recruiting violations.

Both public and private schools have occasionally been slapped on the wrist for recruiting violations by CHSAA. In a recent series, The Denver Post discovered that numerous schools, including Valor Christian and Regis Jesuit, have broken CHSAA rules regarding recruiting, most of them minor.

Gmelich, who took over as Mullen principal this year after a stint at Regis, said "systemic issues" exist at Mullen.

Logan's firing has caused turmoil in the tight-knit Mullen community. Clement acknowledged it was "a difficult hour" for the college-preparatory school, which has a rich tradition of academic and athletic success and of helping subsidize the educations of less-fortunate students.

Speaker after speaker Wednesday complained about the administration's lack of transparency and failure to communicate.

When Clement said being football coach can't be a part-time job, one man in the back yelled, "It can't be? It has been!"

"We absolutely love this place," said Jim Healy, a parent of Mullen graduates. "What we have right now is an absolute lack and vacuum of leadership and no trust at all."

Not everyone was critical, however. Some backed the administration, and one speaker expressed dismay at the "lynch mob mentality" in the room.

Clement, a former quarterback at Mullen, also refuted reports that he was angling to coach at the school.

He said the search for a new coach would begin next week and be "open, inclusive and transparent." He also praised Logan for his hard work, commitment to results and success.

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